zkSync Era: A Powerful Start
At the end of March, Matter Labs opened access to its main product – zkSync Era – a Layer 2 protocol that scales the Ethereum network. How is the technology doing almost a month after launch?
The flagship product of Matter Labs is zkSync Era. Its creation took four years, and on March 24th, the public was finally given access to the product's alpha version.
✨ The long-awaited dream
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) March 24, 2023
4 years ago, we saw that ZK would be the key to crypto's mass adoption. In Dec. 20' we launched zkSync Lite; a simple ZK-rollup for payments. Today our dream comes true: for the first time, a zkEVM is live & open to all on Mainnet with zkSync Era.
3/11
What is it? zkSync Era is a Layer 2 protocol that scales Ethereum and adds support for zkEVM, a tool for "scaling Ethereum's smart contracts without compromising on security, decentralization, cost, or performance," and which at its core uses zero-knowledge proof technology.
💡
Zero-knowledge (ZK) proof is a cryptographic technique that allows one party to prove the truth of any statement to the other party, without providing any other information. The simplest example, in our opinion, would be the following: Alice wants proof that Bob knows the password to his Twitter account. How can Bob prove to Alice that he knows the password without giving the password? Bob just has to log in to his account and twitt something to Alice. Thus, Bob proves to Alice that he knows the password without naming it.
There have been a lot of interesting developments since the protocol debuted on March 24, reflecting the high level of enthusiasm for the project. The use of zkSync Era has been announced by: The Graph, LBank.com, Pyth Network, SpaceFi, zkEagles, rhino.fi, Ramp Network, Omnisea, Kreatorland, Redstone Finance, Nexon Finance, SYNTHR, Deri Protocol, Viva Leverage and Symbiosis.
Additionally, the security operations platform Defender from OpenZeppelin now incorporates zkSync Era.
As a part of our zero-compromise approach to security, zkSync Era is now enabled for all users in @OpenZeppelin's Defender. Defender allows teams, including ours, to securely manage smart contracts on zkSync Era through monitoring, response, and more.
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) April 5, 2023
(1/7) pic.twitter.com/OQ657b72AG
The TVL (Total Value Locked) of zkSync Era exceeded $50 million on the fourth day following the launch. At the time of writing, according to L2Beat, its TVL exceeds $240 million.
$50M ∎https://t.co/ZL9j2gP2eK pic.twitter.com/vh4meGo9Xp
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) March 28, 2023
The zkSync Era was already in third place among all Layer2 solutions on April 2nd, despite the fact that the product is still in its alpha version.
There were, of course, some issues as well. On April 1st, a problem with block production forced the zkSync Era network to go offline for a few of hours. However, it was quickly resolved.
TL;DR:
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) April 1, 2023
1) Fix took 5 min.
2) Monitoring significantly improved.
3) Please remember, Era is in Alpha.
4) Decentralizing the sequencer is the long-term solution.
The smart contract on the zkSync Era was broken on April 7th, according to Gemholic Ecosystem. Gemholic Ecosystem made a mistake when deploying their token contract because they used the .transfer() function, which didn't work on the zkSync Era. 921 ETH got stuck in the smart contract as a result. The developers announced right away that they would be able to return the funds.
Not stuck forever. We are working with the team to help them solve the problem and will publish a detailed update in a bit. Tune in.
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) April 6, 2023
And eventually, the issue was actually resolved. In the zkSync Era, both the .transfer() and .send() functions now operate properly.
Edge cases matter. We would like to share an update on the better support for legacy Solidity functions in @zksync Era.
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) April 7, 2023
TL;DR: .transfer() and .send() will now work exactly as in EVM. https://t.co/CEOqfDa8Kr
The Twitter account of zkSync was breached on April 14th, but with two-factor authentication enabled, the hacker was prevented from accessing the account. (Tip: Make sure it's enabled for your accounts as well.)
Due to the enabled 2FA, the attacker was unable to gain access to our account. However, since the password was changed, our team was logged out and lost access. We quickly noticed this, contacted @TwitterSupport, and initiated an investigation. 5/
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) April 15, 2023
Overall, zkSync Era is doing very well. Halborn Security even conducted an audit for Matter Labs and zkSync Era, the results of which are available online.
External security audits are a critical measure for safeguarding complex systems like zkSync Era. Today, we’re happy to share a new zkSync Era audit report by @HalbornSecurity.
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) April 12, 2023
Read the full report ⬇️ https://t.co/PH8AwMX7ed
Additionally, Aave users voted to use zkSync Era to deploy Aave V3.
Related: Aave Protocol V3 is Finally Live on Ethereum!
A [Temp Check] is currently running to deploy Aave V3 on the @zksync Era Mainnet, expanding Aave’s presence and tapping into the growing zkEVM ecosystem.https://t.co/ps1RMl7Sva
— Aave (@AaveAave) April 14, 2023
The growing interest in zkSync Era demonstrates the potential of zero-knowledge proof as a technology. We'll continue to Observe.